Volume 28, Issue 8, December 2021

Despite coronavirus disease 2019-related disruptions in controlling dengue, efforts need to be maintained to prevent vector-borne diseases during this pandemic. Although travel restrictions brought a global halt to mobility and therefore also a substantial decline of imported and travel-associated dengue, dengue will become dominant again in travel medicine as soon as international travel resumes.

Covid booster shots should be proposed and recommended to all fully vaccinated individuals, considering antibody levels are waning over time and that the risk of being infected typically reappears after 6 months.

The unfamiliarity of their surroundings and dependence on internet connections make international travellers particularly vulnerable to cybercrime. Travel medicine clinicians should be aware of the cybersecurity threats facing travellers and be able to recognize particularly vulnerable travellers. This article outlines these threats and provides advice to mitigate them.

The COVID-19 crisis has drastically impacted the travel medicine field worldwide. In this perspective we have captured the challenges faced by travel clinicians in three Southern European countries: Italy, Spain and Portugal. Current practices, solutions and areas for improvement in these specific countries are discussed.

Following the ‘second wave’ of COVID-19 in India, there has been an upsurge of domestic travel to holiday destinations, particularly Himalayan mountain towns. Modelling suggests that such travel could enhance the peak of a third wave in these states by almost 50%. Principles of ‘responsible travel’ should be adhered to.

A 32-year-old man, who visited Japan from the Philippines in 2020, was diagnosed with rabies, the first reported case in Japan since 2006. This is the fourth imported case of rabies since 1957; one case in 1970 was imported from Nepal and two in 2006 were imported from the Philippines.

Although malaria is one of the differential diagnoses among travellers to endemic area, delayed haemolysis following malaria treatment with artemisinin-derivative drugs during travel should be aware. We highlight the clinical perspective for clinicians to consider this clinical phenomenon to detect any delayed haemolytic event early and prevent potentially serious consequences.

Deemed a variant of concern by the World Health Organization on 15 June, the Lambda variant of SARS-CoV-2 is a growing epidemiological threat in several South American countries, and initial results suggest it exhibits increased infectivity and immune escape qualities. Here, we present evidence of its multiple introductions in Brazil.

Sera of COVID-19 naive vaccinees, COVID-19 recovered cases with vaccination and breakthrough cases demonstrated 1.3-, 2.5- and 1.9-fold reduction in neutralization titers against Delta and 1.5-, 3.5- and 2.8-fold against Delta AY.1 compared with B.1, respectively. However, high-neutralization titers would still effectively protect against Delta, Delta AY.1 and B.1.617.3 variants.

In a COVID-19 outbreak in a group of 25 twice-vaccinated Israeli travellers, the attack rate was 84%, despite negative preflight polymerase chain reaction tests. This extremely high breakthrough infection rate is attributed mainly to close and prolonged exposures during long bus drives. Masking, distancing and personal responsibility are required to avoid such outbreaks.

Among 352 174 airline travellers entering Qatar, 8236 (2.34%) tested positive on or within the first 7 days of arrival, with 3789 (1.08%) testing positive at the time of arrival and the remaining 4447 (1.26%) testing negative at arrival but positive 1 week later.

The evidence for effectiveness of heterologous priming of COVID-19 vaccine is very limited. Here, we studied eighteen participants who received heterologous vaccination regimen of AstraZeneca’s ChAdOx1-nCov-19 followed by inactivated whole virion BBV152. Heterologous group participant doesn’t report any adverse event following immunization and demonstrated high humoral and neutralizing antibody response.

This sero-survey describes the level and time-trend of antibodies elicited by BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine up to 6 months. A strong seroconversion was seen at 30-day serology, with persistence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 S-RBD IgG through 6 months from vaccination. However, the level of vaccine-induced antibodies started to decrease from the second month.

The authors assert that social media influencer tourism should be recognized as a novel entity in travel medicine, in order to protect this vulnerable group of travellers from harm to themselves and their host destinations, and to harness their potential as communicators of positive public health messages.

Travel vaccination hesitancy—a shared concern of travel medicine and tourism.

We report on the extent of environmental contamination of a quarantine hotel in China via two SARS-CoV-2 VOCs positive travellers.

A total of 272 soldiers out of the 301 soldiers (90.4%) were infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Delta variant of concern (VOC) on a single navy ship. This outbreak provides three lessons for the pandemic. This incident clearly demonstrates the transmission characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta VOC.

Headstones are usually considered to be a symbol that provides information about the deceased. This information might include the birth and death date, short literary piece or a poem. A unique headstone in Iran contains basic epidemiological facts about a deadly disease that had spread almost 100 years ago.